Cost Evaluation

A. El-Assal MENG 410 ½1¾

 Why?!
Why making cost evaluation:
• To provide a background for selling purpose or
give a quotation
• Better determining execution and manufacturing
the product
• Used as a basis for cost reduction
• To determine standards for production
performance for cost control
• To provide input concerning profitability of a
new product

A. El-Assal MENG 410 ½2¾

 What?!
Type Main Symbolic Example
Characteristic measure
Operation Worker& Tool Cost Assembler & Hand tool, driver,
secretary
Product Replication Price Cars, Home appliances, Toys, ..

Project Uniqueness Bid Bridges, Plants, Highway

System Configuration Public Weapon system, Hospital,

Effectiveness Schools,..

A. El-Assal MENG 410 ½3¾

 What?!

A. El-Assal MENG 410 ½4¾

 Types of Costs
There are two main categories:
• Nonrecurring costs (Fixed costs or one time costs)
One time costs--usually fixed capital costs including
depreciable facilities (Plant building, equipment, tools, etc.)
and non depreciable costs (land)
• Recurring costs (Variable costs)
Costs that are direct functions of the manufacturing
operation

A. El-Assal MENG 410 ½5¾

 Fixed Costs

Direct Costs are usually composed of:

¾Indirect Plant Costs
¾Management and Administrative Expenses
¾Selling Expenses

A. El-Assal MENG 410 ½6¾

 What?!

All steps are needed for any good cost estimate. The manner of
accomplishing each step, and the depth of information needed and time
expended on each step, will vary considerably, depending on what work
activity or work output is being estimated. These
steps are as follows:
1. Develop the work breakdown structure.
2. Schedule the work elements.
3. Retrieve and organize historical cost data.
4. Develop and use cost estimating relationships.
5. Develop and use production learning curves.
6. Identify skill categories, levels, and rates.
7. Develop labor-hour and material estimates.
8. Develop overhead and administrative costs.
9. Apply inflation and escalation factors.
10. Price (compute) the estimated costs.
11. Analyze, adjust, and support the estimate.
12. Publish, present, and use the estimate.

A. El-Assal MENG 410 ½7¾

 THE WORK BREAKDOWN STRUCTURE

A. El-Assal MENG 410 ½8¾

 Fixed Costs
1. Indirect Plant Costs
a. Investment Costs
Depreciation on capital investment
Interest on capital investment and inventory
Property taxes
Insurance
b. Overhead Costs
Technical services (Engineering)
Product design and development
Nontechnical services (personnel, security, etc.)
General supplies
Rental of equipment

A. El-Assal MENG 410 ½9¾

 Fixed Costs, Contd.
2. Management and Administrative Expenses
a. Share of corporate executive staff
b. Legal Staff
c. Share of corporate R&D staff
d. Marketing staff

3. Selling Expenses
a. Sales Force
b. Delivery and warehouse costs
d. Technical service staff

A. El-Assal MENG 410 ½10¾

 Variable Costs

9 Materials
9 Direct labor
9 Direct Production
9 Power and utilities
9 Maintenance
9 Quality control staff
9 Royalty payments
9 Packaging and storage costs
9 Scrap losses and spoilage

A. El-Assal MENG 410 ½11¾

 Selling Price

Sales Profit
expenses
General
expenses
Factory
expenses

Selling Price
Manufacturing Cost

Total Costs
Direct
Material

Factory Cost
Prime
Direct

Cost
Labor

A. El-Assal MENG 410 ½12¾

 Turnover Concept

It is a rough estimate of the investment cost for a

new product.
Annual Sales
Turnover=
Total Investment

A. El-Assal MENG 410 ½13¾

 Break-Even Analysis

Both Cost type, Fixed and Variable, can be plotted on a diagram

which facilitates viewing graphically the contribution of both on
the total cost. Also helps defining the point of “Break-Even”.

Break-Even point
Profit zone

o st c ost
c ble
otal r ia
Cost, $

T Va

Fixed cost

Loss zone

Production, Units
A. El-Assal MENG 410 ½14¾
 Cost Estimate

Factors affecting construction of CE.:

9 Allowances for extras
9 Cost escalation
9 Design modification
9 Contingency
9 Expiration date

A. El-Assal MENG 410 ½15¾

 Cost Estimate
1. Allowances for extras
Depending on complexity, location and Condition of the
site, Mistakes
2. Cost Escalation
Inflation effect,
3. Design modification
Changes required after start-up
4. Contingency
Funding the unforeseen cost eventualities (10~20%)
5. Expiration date
a date should be set through which costs are valid (3~6
Months)

A. El-Assal MENG 410 ½16¾

 Cost Indices
Because the purchasing power of the money decreases with time, all
published data become out of date. Accordingly, cost indices are
used to compensate that effect.
Cost indices are used to convert past costs to present costs.

II2
CI2= CI1
II1
Cost indices are found in different sources. Example is in the following
table

Types of Cost Source of Cost Index

General Price Indices Bureau of Labor Statistics
Consumer (CPI) U.S. Dept. of Labor
Producer
Construction Cost Indices Eng. News Record
General Const. Chemical Eng.
Chemical plants

A. El-Assal MENG 410 ½17¾

 Cost-Capacity Factors

The Cost of most capital equipment is not directly

proportional to its size or its capacity. The
economy of scale is very important in engineering
design. The cost-capacity relationship can be
expressed by:

QI
C1= C0( Q0
)

Cost indices are found in different sources. Example

is in the following table

A. El-Assal MENG 410 ½18¾

 Design to Cost
Design to cost is the use of costing methods early in design
stage.
Order of magnitude Estimates
Often, cost is estimated based on one factor, most
commonly used is weight. Accordingly, products can be
divided into 3 main categories:
1. Large functional products- Cars, loaders, ..
2. Mechanical/electrical- Small appliances, electrical
equip.
3. Precision products- Cameras, electronic equip.
Cost in each category is based on weight (about $5 per lb)
but the cost increase by a factor of 10 from among them.

A. El-Assal MENG 410 ½19¾

 Manufacturing Cost
Detailed manufacturing costs require specificity in dimensions,
tolerances, materials, and process planning. Now, thanks to
computers, this process can be done before process planning in
order to decide for making/buy. This can be done after the
following:
1. Make complete list of components full with detailed analysis.
2. Draw up a manufacturing process plan for each component.
3. Determine material cost/component.
4. Determine manufacturing time/each operation.
5. Apply labor and overhead rate to each operation.
6. Calculate manufacturing cost:
Cu = Cm + CL + OH
Hint: complexity factor may be used to give indication to manufacturing
time which found to be in direct proportionality to I (Complexity
index) given by: di
I = ∑i log2 ( )
ti
A. El-Assal MENG 410 ½20¾
 Overhead Costs
There are to main categories of overhead costs:
• Factory or plant overhead, FOH
Includes the costs of manufacturing that are not related to
direct labor and materials.
• Corporate overhead, COH.
Costs related to running the company that are outside the
manufacturing or production activities.
Corporate overhead rate is the COH/Total cost

A. El-Assal MENG 410 ½21¾

 Product Profit Costs
The total cost of production and marketing product
can be written as:
Cp = Q (CM + CL + OH) + T + S + CD
Where:
Q: total lifetime volume of production
T: one time capital cost of equipment and tooling
S: corporate overhead costs
CD: cost of developing he product up and its
updates

A. El-Assal MENG 410 ½22¾

 Approximate Method
WEIGHT BASED
Rough method

where K is a fudge factor related to the complexity of the product,

materials used, means of production, and other factors.
FRACTION BASED
Rough method

where fi is the fraction of the system weight so that

Ki is cost of component per unit weight (cost factor), and N is the number
of components in the design

A. El-Assal MENG 410 ½23¾

 Approximate Method
Some of the cost estimate for many engineering materials are:

Design Element Cost Factor,

Design Element
$/lb.
Sophisticated Electronics 40 – 100
Simple Electronics 10 – 20
Complex Machined Parts 10 – 30
Simple Machined Parts 4 – 8
Complex Molded/Cast Parts – Metal 3 – 5
Simple Molded/Cast Parts – Metal 2 - 3
Complex Extruded Parts – Aluminum 3 - 5
Simple Extruded Parts - Aluminum 1.5 - 3

A. El-Assal MENG 410 ½24¾

 Learning Curve
It is a commonly known that for a new production, as time goes,
workers get used to production process and productivity
increase.
This kind of improvement is usually expressed as Learning Curve. It
also called Production Improvement Curve.
As experience indicates, Each time cumulative production doubles,
production time is xx percentage of what it was before the
doubling.
xx depends on the characteristic feature of the learning curve. If
it is 80% curve, this means that each doubling time the
production time is less 20% of the previous round.

A. El-Assal MENG 410 ½25¾

 Learning Curve, Contd.
Prod. time 100 y = k xn P n
80 65 -0.624
60 70 -0.515
40 75 -0.415
20 80 -0.322
0 85 -0.234
2 4 6 8 10 90 -0.074
Cumulative Production, Units
Learning curve is mathematically represented by the relation:

Where: y = k xn
y: production effort, h/unit or $/unit
k: effort needed for manufacturing first unit
x: cumulative total units produced
n: exponent

A. El-Assal MENG 410 ½26¾

 Machining Cost

To
ta
Ma

lu
Cost per piece, $

nit
chi

co t
nin

st cos
l
g

o
To
cos
t

Cost of set up and handling

Cost of Materials

Cutting Velocity, Units

A. El-Assal MENG 410 ½27¾

 Machining Cost Model
Cost of machining process, as it is broken down into its simplest cost
elements, can be estimated as follows:
B
Cost/Piece = A + n
A: machining plus work-handling costs/piece
B: tool cost including changing and sharpening $/tool
n: Number of produced pieces/tool
LW: Load WP AT: Advance Tool
AT: Retract Tool UW: Unload WP
One work cycle

LW AT Cut RT UW LW AT Cut RT UW

A. El-Assal MENG 410 ½28¾

 Life Cycle Costing
Life cycle costing, LCC, is an attempt to define all costs associated
with a product throughout its life cycle.
Known also as Whole Life Costing.
Product
design

Raw material Processes of Manufacturing Product

Use/Service
acquisition materials Assembly retirement

Materials
Remanufacturing Reuse
recycle
Ecosystem
disturbance Teardown &
Identification
Costing analysis should not only concern about product
during its life operation and maintenance, but also Treatment &
Disposal
possibility of recycling, disassembly and scrapping
according to an environmentally safe procedure.
Emissions

A. El-Assal MENG 410 ½29¾